Charity Shop Cabaret

Charity Shop Cabaret is proof that you can be entertained at the Fringe without spending a penny. With an almost non-existent budget, Cornwall-based Trifle Gathering productions gives us a consistently amusing - if not especially hilarious - insight into the bizarre world of the British charity shop. With ever-so-slightly grotesque and sinister characters, bad early '90s costumes and an appropriately thick overlay of kitsch, fans of shows such as Garth Merenghi's Darkplace or The League of Gentlemen will be well-served by the mix of music, dance, comedy and audience interaction.

Most of the humour is clever and original - the quickest way to find the dirty bits in a Mills & Boon novel being one of the highlights, and Kyla Goodey is near-perfect as the addled, menopausal manageress, Elspeth Garter. The show could do without the contrived device used to tie everything together - i.e Elspeth being interviewed on Desert Island Discs (complete with a terrible Kirsty Young impersonation) - but this is a rare misstep. A string of well-placed '70s and '80s cultural references (a dance to the theme tune of Roy Castle-era Record Breakers chief among them) are effective, but perhaps limit the audience to native Britons and only those over the age of 25. Anyone within that demographic, however, is putty in the hands of the cast. Trife Gathering have been let down by a slightly unfair lack of press coverage; take advantage of the last few days of the Fringe to see one of the best free shows on offer and ensure they come back in 2011.